The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-10-01
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY

ity of mems linen collars can. in the
Troy factories, for instance, earn from
$25 to $50 per week.
1t has been ascertained that q
numbing action, similar to that Of
cocaine. is produced by the external
application to the body of the we'll
known Intoxicating drink of the South
Sea Islanders called kava.
Some unpublished letters from
Luther to Brenz and five from Melanc-
thon to the Swabian reformer Lach.
mann have been found in an old desk
in school at Heilbronn.
The respectable sum of 100000 a
year is expended by the government of
Cuba for chemical analyses in cases of
suspected poisoning and all kinds of
medico-legal Investigations. -Ar&an-
sGlO TrdUeter.
The interest on the legacy of ten
thousand dollars, bequeathed to the
Paris Academy of Sciences by Gitfard.
the well known inventor, will be used
to assist worthy men of learning who
are in temporary financial straits.
Mr.. G. Murray. who recently made
botanical trip to the West Indian
island of Grenada, found the razor
grass in one place so thick and sharp
thatin passing through it his hands, face
and wrists were scanned with bleeding
cuts.
Recent delicate scientific expert
ments have discovered the fact that the
surface of the land is never absolutely
at rest for more than thirty hours at
time. Thus, those great earthquakes
which make epochs in history are mere
lv extreme cases of forces that seldom
sleep. Opinion.
How much rain must fall in the
coarse of the day to make it rainy
day in the meteorological sense? This
question has been discussed a good
deal by persons interested in weather
science, but not yet determined authori-
tatigely The weight of opinion seems
to be that a rainfall amounting at
least to the one-hundredth part of an
inch is necessary to make rainy day.
N Y Ledger.
During the past season 30,000,000
cucumbers have been picked in one
factory at Fredericksburg, Va. One
acre will produce on an average 100,-
600 cucumbers, and they sell readily
in the city at 80 cents per 1000 They
are usually picked when not more than
an inch or an inch and half long.
One person can gather in 5000 in a
day.
The Prussian society for the pro-
motion of industry has offered two
prizes, the competition for one to close
with 1897 and for the other with 1888.
The first prize is about $3.50, for the
most exhaustive critical comparison OF
all kinds of existing bronze, tombac
and brass alloys. used or recommended
for machinery; the second is $1,250 for
the best work on light and heat radi-
alton of burning gases. -ArkanSaoc
IrdUeler.
"A French savant has propounded
theory that coal was originally liquid
generated by the decomposition of in
ferior vegetation in an atmosphere
highly charged with carbonic acid.
The carbon of the jelly-like mass just
formed, after passing through various
transformations into asphalt, petrol
cum, bitumen, etc., finally assumed the
form of coal. The author cites various
facts connected with the occurrence of
coal which, he thinks are better ex-
planned on this theory than by the
usual one. Public Opinion.
Mr. Desire Chamay, the Central
American Traveller, asserts that the
concentric circles shown in logs CT ma
hogany, and many other tropical woods
correspond to so many months of
growth rather than to one year each,
as is generally supposed. 'In my first
expedition to Palenque," he says, ''in
1859, l had the east side of the palace
cleared of its dense vegetation, to Sc
cure good photograph. Consequent
ly the trees that have grown up since
(up to 1882 can not be more than
twenty-five years old. Now, one of
the cuttings, measuring some two feet
in diameter, had upward of two humid
red and thirty concentric circles.-N. T.
Ledger.
The Mississippi Valley L@mbermaa
thinks that the output of the mills on
streams tributary to the Upper Missis-
sippi which depend upon water to float
their logs to them will this year be from
80 to 80 per cent. less than common.
But the same lack of rain has dimin-
ished the ability of the farmers, and of
those who live by trading with the
farmers, tC buy lumber, to almost an
equal extent in a considerable part of
the region to which the lumber is COM
monty sent. Indeed, an amount of
rainfall which would materially benefit
crops would, especially after long
drought, do almost nothing to start
"hung-up' logs down stream.
Homemade Saving Machine.
A New York correspondent of an
| l., !.